Terry Jackson

The structure and function of a foot-and-mouth disease virus-oligosaccharide receptor complex.

Heparan sulfate has an important role in cell entry by foot‐and‐mouth disease virus (FMDV). We find that subtype O1 FMDV binds this glycosaminoglycan with a high affinity by immobilizing a specific highly abundant motif of sulfated sugars. The binding site is a shallow depression on the virion surface, located at the junction of the three major capsid proteins, VP1, VP2 and VP3. Two pre‐formed sulfate‐binding sites control receptor specificity. Residue 56 of VP3, an arginine in this virus, is critical to this recognition, forming a key component of both sites. This residue is a histidine in field isolates of the virus, switching to an arginine in adaptation to tissue culture, forming the high affinity heparan sulfate‐binding site. We postulate that this site is a conserved feature of FMDVs, such that in the infected animal there is a biological advantage to low affinity, or more selective, interactions with glycosaminoglycan receptors.

The Epithelial Integrin αvβ6 Is a Receptor for Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus

ABSTRACT Field isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) have been shown to use the RGD-dependent integrin αvβ3 as a cellular receptor on cultured cells. However, several other RGD-dependent integrins may have the potential to act as receptors for FMDV in vivo. Of these, αvβ6 is a likely candidate for use as a receptor by FMDV as it is expressed on epithelial cells, which correlates with the tissue tropism of the virus. In this report, we show that human colon carcinoma cells (SW480) that are normally nonpermissive for FMDV become susceptible to infection as a result of transfection with the integrin β6 subunit and expression of αvβ6 at the cell surface. Integrin αvβ6 is the major site for virus attachment on the β6-transfected cells, and binding to αvβ6 serves to increase the rate of virus entry into these cells. In addition, we show that virus binding and infection of the β6-transfected cells is mediated through an RGD-dependent interaction that is specifically inhibited by a monoclonal antibody (10D5) that recognizes αvβ6. These studies establish a role for αvβ6 as a cellular receptor for FMDV.

Integrin αvβ1 Is a Receptor for Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus

ABSTRACT Infection by field strains of Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is initiated by binding to certain species of arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-dependent integrin including αvβ3 and the epithelial integrin αvβ6. In this report we show that the integrin αvβ1, when expressed as a human/hamster heterodimer on transfected CHOB2 cells, is a receptor for FMDV. Virus binding and infection mediated by αvβ1 was inefficient in the presence of physiological concentrations of calcium and magnesium but were significantly enhanced by reagents that activate the integrin and promote ligand binding. The ability of chimeric α5/αv integrin subunits, in association with the β1 chain, to bind FMDV and mediate infection matched the ligand binding specificity of αvβ1, not α5β1, thus providing further evidence for the receptor role of αvβ1. In addition, data are presented suggesting that amino acid residues near the RGD motif may be important for differentiating between the binding specificities of αvβ1 and αvβ6.

Integrin αvβ8 Functions as a Receptor for Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus: Role of the β-Chain Cytodomain in Integrin-Mediated Infection

ABSTRACT Field isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) have been shown to use three αv integrins, αvβ1, αvβ3, and αvβ6, as cellular receptors. Binding to the integrin is mediated by a highly conserved RGD motif located on a surface-exposed loop of VP1. The RGD tripeptide is recognized by several other members of the integrin family, which therefore have the potential to act as receptors for FMDV. Here we show that SW480 cells are made susceptible to FMDV following transfection with human β8 cDNA and expression of αvβ8 at the cell surface. The involvement of αvβ8 in infection was confirmed by showing that virus binding and infection of the transfected cells are inhibited by RGD-containing peptides and by function-blocking monoclonal antibodies specific for either the αvβ8 heterodimer or the αv chain. Similar results were obtained with a chimeric αvβ8 including the β6 cytodomain (αvβ8/6), showing that the β6 cytodomain can substitute efficiently for the corresponding region of β8. In contrast, virus binding to αvβ6 including the β8 cytodomain (αvβ6/8) was lower than that of the wild-type integrin, and this binding did not lead to infection. Further, the αvβ6 chimera was recognized poorly by antibodies specific for the ectodomain of αvβ6 and displayed a relaxed sequence-binding specificity relative to that of wild-type integrin. These data suggest that the β6 cytodomain is important for maintaining αvβ6 in a conformation required for productive infection by FMDV.

Perturbations in the surface structure of A22 Iraq foot-and-mouth disease virus accompanying coupled changes in host cell specificity and antigenicity

BACKGROUND Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is an extremely infectious and antigenically diverse picornavirus of cloven-hoofed animals. Strains of the A22 subtype have been reported to change antigenically when adapted to different growth conditions. To investigate the structural basis of this phenomenon we have determined the structures of two variants of an A22 virus. RESULTS The structures of monolayer- and suspension-cell-adapted A22 FMDV have been determined by X-ray crystallography. Picornaviruses comprise four capsid proteins, VP1-4. The major antigenic loop of the capsid protein VP1 is flexible in both variants of the A22 subtype but its overall disposition is distinct from that observed in other FMDV serotypes (O and C). A detailed structural comparison between A22 FMDV and a type O virus suggests that different conformations in a portion of the major antigenic loop of VP1 (the GH loop, which is also central to receptor attachment) result in distinct folds of the adjacent VP3 GH loop. Also, a single mutation (Glu82-->Gly) on the surface of VP2 in the suspension-cell-adapted virus appears to perturb the structure of the VP1 GH loop. CONCLUSION The GH loop of VP1 is flexible in three serotypes of FMDV, suggesting that flexibility is important in both antigenic variability and structural communication with other regions of the virus capsid. Our results illustrate two instances of the propagation of structural perturbations across the virion surface: the change in the VP3 GH loop caused by the VP1 GH loop and the Glu82-->Gly change in VP2 which we believe perturbs the GH loop of VP1. In the latter case, the amplification of the sequence changes leads to differences, between the monolayer- and suspension-cell-adapted viruses, in host-cell interactions and antigenicity.

Specificity of the VP1 GH Loop of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus for αv Integrins

ABSTRACT Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) can use a number of integrins as receptors to initiate infection. Attachment to the integrin is mediated by a highly conserved arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) tripeptide located on the GH loop of VP1. Other residues of this loop are also conserved and may contribute to integrin binding. In this study we have used a 17-mer peptide, whose sequence corresponds to the GH loop of VP1 of type O FMDV, as a competitor of integrin-mediated virus binding and infection. Alanine substitution through this peptide identified the leucines at the first and fourth positions following RGD (RGD+1 and RGD+4 sites) as key for inhibition of virus binding and infection mediated by αvβ6 or αvβ8 but not for inhibition of virus binding to αvβ3. We also show that FMDV peptides containing either methionine or arginine at the RGD+1 site, which reflects the natural sequence variation seen across the FMDV serotypes, are effective inhibitors for αvβ6. In contrast, although RGDM-containing peptides were effective for αvβ8, RGDR-containing peptides were not. These observations were confirmed by showing that a virus containing an RGDR motif uses αvβ8 less efficiently than αvβ6 as a receptor for infection. Finally, evidence is presented that shows αvβ3 to be a poor receptor for infection by type O FMDV. Taken together, our data suggest that the integrin binding loop of FMDV has most likely evolved for binding to αvβ6 with a higher affinity than to αvβ3 and αvβ8.

Early Events in Integrin αvβ6-Mediated Cell Entry of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus

ABSTRACT We have shown that foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) infection mediated by the integrin αvβ6 takes place through clathrin-dependent endocytosis but not caveolae or other endocytic pathways that depend on lipid rafts. Inhibition of clathrin-dependent endocytosis by sucrose treatment or expression of a dominant-negative version of AP180 inhibited virus entry and infection. Similarly, inhibition of endosomal acidification inhibited an early step in infection. Blocking endosomal acidification did not interfere with surface expression of αvβ6, virus binding to the cells, uptake of the virus into endosomes, or cytoplasmic virus replication, suggesting that the low pH within endosomes is a prerequisite for delivery of viral RNA into the cytosol. Using immunofluorescence confocal microscopy, FMDV colocalized with αvβ6 at the cell surface but not with the B subunit of cholera toxin, a marker for lipid rafts. At 37°C, virus was rapidly taken up into the cells and colocalized with markers for early and recycling endosomes but not with a marker for lysosomes, suggesting that infection occurs from within the early or recycling endosomal compartments. This conclusion was supported by the observation that FMDV infection is not inhibited by nocodazole, a reagent that inhibits vesicular trafficking between early and late endosomes (and hence trafficking to lysosomes). The integrin αvβ6 was also seen to accumulate in early and recycling endosomes on virus entry, suggesting that the integrin serves not only as an attachment receptor but also to deliver the virus to the acidic endosomes. These findings are all consistent with FMDV infection proceeding via clathrin-dependent endocytosis.

Rational engineering of recombinant picornavirus capsids to produce safe, protective vaccine antigen.

Foot-and-mouth disease remains a major plague of livestock and outbreaks are often economically catastrophic. Current inactivated virus vaccines require expensive high containment facilities for their production and maintenance of a cold-chain for their activity. We have addressed both of these major drawbacks. Firstly we have developed methods to efficiently express recombinant empty capsids. Expression constructs aimed at lowering the levels and activity of the viral protease required for the cleavage of the capsid protein precursor were used; this enabled the synthesis of empty A-serotype capsids in eukaryotic cells at levels potentially attractive to industry using both vaccinia virus and baculovirus driven expression. Secondly we have enhanced capsid stability by incorporating a rationally designed mutation, and shown by X-ray crystallography that stabilised and wild-type empty capsids have essentially the same structure as intact virus. Cattle vaccinated with recombinant capsids showed sustained virus neutralisation titres and protection from challenge 34 weeks after immunization. This approach to vaccine antigen production has several potential advantages over current technologies by reducing production costs, eliminating the risk of infectivity and enhancing the temperature stability of the product. Similar strategies that will optimize host cell viability during expression of a foreign toxic gene and/or improve capsid stability could allow the production of safe vaccines for other pathogenic picornaviruses of humans and animals.

Integrin αvβ6 Is an RGD-Dependent Receptor for Coxsackievirus A9

ABSTRACT Coxsackievirus A9 (CAV9), a member of the Enterovirus genus of Picornaviridae, is a common human pathogen and is one of a significant number of viruses containing a functional arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) motif in one of their capsid proteins. Previous studies identified the RGD-recognizing integrin αvβ3 as its cellular receptor. However, integrin αvβ6 has been shown to be an efficient receptor for another RGD-containing picornavirus, foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). In view of the similarity in sequence context of the RGD motifs in CAV9 and FMDV, we investigated whether αvβ6 can also serve as a receptor for CAV9. We found that CAV9 can bind to purified αvβ6 and also to SW480 cells transfected with β6 cDNA, allowing expression of αvβ6 on their surface, but it cannot bind to mock-transfected cells. In addition, a higher yield of CAV9 was obtained in β6-expressing cells than in mock-transfected cells. There was no similar enhancement in infection with an RGD-less CAV9 mutant. We also found β6 on the surface of GMK cells, a cell line which CAV9 infects efficiently by an RGD-dependent mechanism. Significantly, this infection is blocked by an antibody to αvβ6, while this antibody did not block the low level of infection by the RGD-less mutant. Thus, integrin αvβ6 is an RGD-dependent receptor for CAV9 and may be important in natural CAV9 infections.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus is a ligand for the high-affinity binding conformation of integrin alpha5beta1: influence of the leucine residue within the RGDL motif on selectivity of integrin binding

Field isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) use RGD-dependent integrins as receptors for internalization, whereas strains that are adapted for growth in cultured cell lines appear to be able to use alternative receptors like heparan sulphate proteoglycans (HSPG). The ligand-binding potential of integrins is regulated by changes in the conformation of their ectodomains and the ligand-binding state would be expected to be an important determinant of tropism for viruses that use integrins as cellular receptors. Currently, alphavbeta3 is the only integrin that has been shown to act as a receptor for FMDV. In this study, a solid-phase receptor-binding assay has been used to characterize the binding of FMDV to purified preparations of the human integrin alpha5beta1, in the absence of HSPG and other RGD-binding integrins. In this assay, binding of FMDV resembled authentic ligand binding to alpha5beta1 in its dependence on divalent cations and specific inhibition by RGD peptides. Most importantly, binding was found to be critically dependent on the conformation of the integrin, as virus bound only after induction of the high-affinity ligand-binding state. In addition, the identity of the amino acid residue immediately following the RGD motif is shown to influence differentially the ability of FMDV to bind integrins alpha5beta1 and alphavbeta3 and evidence is provided that alpha5beta1 might be an important FMDV receptor in vivo.